$50 request for sex with undercover cop lands firefighter in jail

A St. Johns County firefighter is one of four men arrested in a Daytona Beach police prostitution sting, a police official said. Two sexual predators and a man with cocaine also were arrested in the sting, police said. Kurt Kevin Johnson, 55, was picked up at 11:38 a.m. Thursday during the sting and told officers he was a fire lieutenant with St. Johns County, said Daytona Beach police Chief Mike Chitwood. Johnson, charged with solicitation to commit prostitution and cited for using his vehicle for prostitution or lewdness, left the Volusia County Branch Jail at 6:30 p.m. Thursday after posting $500 bail, a booking officer said. According to an arrest report, Johnson, of St. Augustine, approached a police woman posing as a prostitute at the intersection of South Ridgewood and Freemont avenues, an area known for prostitution, while in his 1997 Dodge truck with a license plate that read KEEPAH, police said. When a Daytona Beach patrol car drove by, Johnson asked the undercover officer if the police knew her, the report states. Johnson then asked the officer if she needed a ride and she told him she had a motel room. The officer then asked Johnson how much money he had and he said he had $50 and asked what he could get for that. Johnson pulled into the parking lot of the Travel Inn where he was arrested, police said. Johnson could not be reached for comment as his contact number was redacted from the Daytona Beach police report, unlike the arrest reports of three other men arrested in the sting, whose information was not taken out. His jail mug shot is also being withheld from public view because of a legal records exemption. Police spokesman said Johnson's information was blotted in black ink because Florida law forbids the release of information on firefighters. The three other men arrested are Joseph Latasso, 75, of Edgewater, Deron Ballinger, 47, of Holly Hill, and Lee Anderson, 55, of New Smyrna Beach. Latasso, who was previously arrested in February at South Ridgewood and Freemont avenues, was again arrested at the same location Thursday. Police said Latasso offered to pay the undercover officer $20 for oral sex. He was charged with solicitation to commit prostitution. Ballinger arrived with $15 and requested oral sex and when police tried to arrest him, he tried to swallow cocaine he had on him, police said. He was charged with possession of cocaine, destroying or tampering with evidence and resisting an officer without violence. Anderson, a sexual predator, offered $10 for oral sex, police said. He was charged with solicitation to commit prostitution. Anderson was accompanied by Anthony DiGrazia, also a sexual predator, who was on conditional release for possession of child pornography. DiGrazia was also detained, police said. DiGrazia, 55, had a purple vibrator sticking out of his left front pocket and was charged with violating five demands of his conditional release, police said.